Surge in AI weaponization to promote hatred of Israel and Jews

Artificial intelligence (AI) is widely considered a cutting-edge technology that will, for better or worse, dramatically transform modern societies. While AI has many positive attributes, it has been increasingly used as a digitized weapon to promote hatred against Israel and the Jewish people.

Zefr, a data platform company focused on monitoring incitement content on social networks, has noted a dramatic increase in the use of AI tools to disseminate misinformation and distortions about the Jewish state amid the ongoing war with the terrorist organization Hamas in Gaza.

Zefr CEO Or Levi views the Hamas Oct. 7 massacre as a pivotal moment in the utilization of AI-supported anti-Israel propaganda across social media platforms.

"Following the events of October 7, we identified a twenty-fold increase in the amount of manipulated information in the context of Israel and Hamas. This is the first case in which significant use of AI for propaganda and incitement purposes is seen," Levi assessed.

AI tools like Dall-E, Stable Diffusion and Midjourney are reportedly being used to target global businesses that support Israel.

The IT specialist noted that one main objective of the AI-driven anti-Israel campaign is to promote boycotts against Israel

“We identified a growing trend on social networks of video content with millions of views against popular brands associated with Israel and calls for boycotts against them. This incitement campaign ultimately harms the country and gives us extra motivation to work on these issues," Levi said.

According to Levi, images play a crucial role in how humans perceive world events, including the conflict between Hamas and Israel in Gaza. As AI becomes increasingly sophisticated, Levi warned of "fake images of destruction and loss" to influence global public opinion and said most people are not able to distinguish between fake and real.

AI-generated fake images of Gazan civilians, and especially children in distress, have played a critical role in the disinformation war against Israel.

The Zefr team has classified fake internet content into 12 different groups, three of which are incitement, terrorism and the spread of fake news. The platform is able to analyze the content and then assess the level of risk involved.

Zefr is playing an active role in the removal of content that violates the rules and policies of social media platforms like Facebook.